I just saw an Avril Lavigne video on MTV, where she spouts these lyrics,
“I got you in my pants, I’ll have to kick your ass, and make you never forget.”
MTV bleeped out “in my pants” but not “ass”. Since when is “in my pants” more vulgar/unacceptable than “ass”? If we were out in public, I’d rather my 5-year-old niece tell me she’s got an itch in her pants than an itch in her ass. Actually, I think the “ass” one is funnier, but seriously…who decides this stuff on MTV?
This is a whoosh, right? “kick your ass” is more “objectionable” to you than “I got you in my pants”?
Would you rather she say, “Damn, I’d let that boy in my pants any day,” or “Susie’s an idiot, I’m gonna kick her ass”? It’s all about context. Though granted “in my pants” is hardly censorable for MTV, I would think.
If she had sung, “I got you in my ass,” I bet they would have bleeped that.
Do you similarly object to “butt”, “fanny”, or “derriere”? Cause they mean the same thing as “ass”, right?
I’ve been playing a new online game, Lineage 2, the last few days and I’ve noticed some funny things while messing with the bad word filter.
You can say shit, but not poop, and you can say cunt, but not vagina.
I’m starting to think the people that designed this game don’t speak English.
So what else is new? MTV has always been far more concerned with censoring sex, drug use and suggestive behavior than censoring violence or violent behavior. Y’know, because kids would never learn about sex and drugs if it weren’t for MTV. :rolleyes:
Par for the course.
The REALLY disturbing thing about that Avril Lavigne song is that she sang it at the NICKELODEAN KID’S CHOICE AWARDS!!!
My seven year old was watching that show, and I was genuinely surprised when I listened to the lyrics she sang. Jesus, it’s a show for children!
I remember some years ago, during a concert clip of Weezer performing “Hash Pipe” MTV repeatedly censored the word “asswipe,” but did not do that for the video of the same song (IIRC). They also never bothered to censor the line “shit I got to have her” in ZZ Top’s “Legs” back in the 80’s, even though everybody knew what the line said.
So, at best, MTV’s censors are inconsistent.
The Avril Lavigne song you’re discussing, “Don’t Tell Me”, is one I would think parents and censors would wholly APPROVE of. If you listen to all the lyrics you’ll discover it’s a song about a girl resisting the sexual advances of a guy. The line in question is: “Don’t think that your charmin’, the fact that your arm is now around my neck, will get you in my pants, I’ll have to kick your ass, and make you never forget.” It goes on: " I’m gonna ask you to stop, that I like you a lot, but I’m really upset. So get outta’ my head, get offa’ my bed. Yeah, that’s what I said".
Sounds like a pretty positive message for Avril’s young female fan base, if you ask me.
But she talked about sex! Won’t someone think of the children?! Oh wait…
IIRC, Jon Stewart made a joke about “finger-banging Elmo” on The Daily Show.
The network bleeped “finger,” but left “banging.”
Um, guys, if you’re only going to bleep half of it, why that half?
Is this only an American thing? I’ve seen that video a couple times on MTV and I’m pretty sure they didnt beep any of it.
And I agree with randwill, anyone with problems with these lyrics should really listen to the whole thing in full.
Oh, I thought this was going to be about how they don’t let Kanye West say “white.” He’s talking about black people and materialism and then says “and the … man get paid off of all of that.” What, are the MTV censors part of the conspiracy here? “We can’t let those negroes know that white people own the jewelry stores!”
Because if they beeped the other half, everyone’s internal censor-correction circuit would read it as “finger-fucking,” which is arguably more offensive.
(This reminds me of all the years that I thought Emilio Esteves’ character in The Breakfast Club said “Eat my shit” after seeing it jarringly dubbed over as “Eat my socks” on American broadcast television. Imagine my surprise when I saw it on video and realized the offending phrase was “Eat my shorts.” :rolleyes: )
Exactly, I think this is good for those kids at the teen choice awards.
It will create girls with odd fashion sence that won’t take crap from horny boys, it seriously sounds good to me.
And this is the same network that has cartoon children singing about finger banging on South Park?
It’s also the same network that bleeps “Jesus” in certain contexts. I think the issue is when the programs air - the Daily Show is on at 7 pm EST (with reruns later) and South Park is on at 10 or 11. There are different standards for prime time vs. later in the evening when it’s assumed kids won’t be watching.
I think my favorite example of MTV censorship was in the video for Primus’s Betty’s Big Brown Beaver where there’s a bouncing ball going along with the lyrics at the bottom of the screen. In the line “I recognize that smell…”, they not only edited out the word from the song, but cut the word “Smell” out of the captions.
But they left in “Smells like seven layers…”
Yeah, someone somewhere’s got a huge screw loose.
It was Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver, not Betty’s.
And Primus is just weird enough that they might not have even been talking about a vagina.